Power Vs Ferocity Food

Hey guys, I didn't know where to post this thread.

I am mainly a WvW player, I solo roam with holosmith, spellbreaker and dragonhunter.

My indecision is between the +70power(-10% inc. damage) or the +70ferocity(-10% inc. damage) foods.

Considering that crit chance % given by precision won't be touched at all, power or ferocity makes you do more damage?

Because with no crits with power i will logically do more, but critting i will crit higher with ferocity right?

What food is the best considering those profession have not interaction or traits connected to ferocity damage boost etc.

It depends. Generally, the +power is superior, but if you have high enough power and low enough ferocity, the ferocity is better. Really, it's weighing the percentage your stats increase since both are additive.

+70 ferocity is 4.5 critical damage.

Assuming Marauder + Scholar gear:

With 199 critical damage rounding up, the +4.5% critical damage isn't strictly +4.5% damage; your modifier becomes 203.5%, which 203.5/199 = a 2.26% gain in damage on critical attacks.

With 2348 power with a marauder build, the fraction of power gained from +70 = 2418/2348 = 2.98% gain, including non-critical hits.With 25 might to 3168/3098 = 2.23% gain

As you can see, the difference is pretty negligible even at high power values; the difference in terms of overall damage dealt is < 0.1%, and also depends on your crit chance. That bonus power applies to all hits, so unless you have a 99%+ crit chance, power statistically wins out in the case of overall damage between crits/non-crits.

@DeceiverX.8361 said:It depends. Generally, the +power is superior, but if you have high enough power and low enough ferocity, the ferocity is better. Really, it's weighing the percentage your stats increase since both are additive.

+70 ferocity is 4.5 critical damage.

Assuming Marauder + Scholar gear:

With 199 critical damage rounding up, the +4.5% critical damage isn't strictly +4.5% damage; your modifier becomes 203.5%, which 203.5/199 = a 2.26% gain in damage on critical attacks.

With 2348 power with a marauder build, the fraction of power gained from +70 = 2418/2348 = 2.98% gain, including non-critical hits.With 25 might to 3168/3098 = 2.23% gain

As you can see, the difference is pretty negligible even at high power values; the difference in terms of overall damage dealt is < 0.1%, and also depends on your crit chance. That bonus power applies to all hits, so unless you have a 99%+ crit chance, power statistically wins out in the case of overall damage between crits/non-crits.

Thanks for the detailed answer :D

I would first try to factor the cost between the 2. +70 in a stat isn't enough of a performance difference to justify 5-20 times the cost, when the primary bonus (-10% dmg) is not only more significant, but equal across the different foods. We're talking about WvW, so you have to consider the running cost for uptime (and availability of gate materials if applicable); unless you are sitting on Primers, or are producing primer flasks via garden to massively extend it.

Zesty sauce costs 3.4s per use. Fried Oyster Sandwich costs 31s per use. Each use is only good for 30 minutes. Given the marginal performance value of +70 on a stat with a base value of 1000, I would seriously consider the cheaper option the more cost efficient solution. That is, unless you have no use for your gold, and can afford to run expensive food (6.2g per 20 hour "skirmish" week in food) on whatever income a Roamer generates. I was always under the impression of Roamer income being on the low side due to low bag farm volume and slower WvW rank gains; though the skirmish and reward track are a lot higher then previous incarnations of the system.

Power. This is because power scales linearly, so no matter the value the increase remains the same. Here's the difference:

2000/1000 = 2 (reference)2070/1000 = 2,07

This means using the power food will net you a 7% damage increase regardless of whether you crit or not.

Ferocity on the other hand follows a 15:1 ratio, so:70/15 = 4,67

This means using the ferocity food will net you a 4,67% damage increase only on critical hits.

Which to use depends on who you're fighting:

• For opponents with high armor power is the way to go
• For opponents with low armor go ferocity

This is because the game offers diminishing returns in both directions, and ferocity was added as a counter to the toughness builds out there making your power and precision even more effective. That being said point by point power far outclasses ferocity, and since you already get 150% dmg baseline on crit even precision will help more.

The only time ferocity is the best pick is when you rely on a few heavy hitters, that are guaranteed to crit (thief for example benefits alot from it, as all damage modifiers are compounded (multiplicative, ferocity included) so the more modifiers the more umph your ferocity boost gives). Given your power is above that of the targets armor, ferocity will be the more useful choice (only if you crit though).